Top of the Pops 7 February 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Bruno Brookes: “Good evening. Welcome to another fabbo Top of the Pops. The music brilliant as ever. We’ve got New Kids On The Block a little later, Gloria Estefan, The Simpsons, just to name a few. First of all we’re gonna start with a new entry at number twenty one, the song G.L.A.D. and the singer Kim Appleby. Yo!”

 [21] KIM APPLEBY: G.L.A.D. The BBC1 schedules have returned to normal and Top of the Pops is back to a running time of 30 minutes. However, this week there’s a greater reliance on music videos so it looks like this edition was planned with one eye on the assumption that it might need to be cut down to 25 minutes. The increased use of videos might reflect viewer demand but I suspect its because it’s simpler to snip out The Night Fever Megamix if the BBC goes War News Crazy again and tells the programme to lose five minutes.

[25] GLORIA ESTEFAN: COMING OUT OF THE DARK. Promo VT.

[23] THE UK MIXMASTERS: THE NIGHT FEVER MEGAMIX. Promo VT.

CHARTS: “What we’re going to do now is concentrate on some of the records going up this week’s chart.” Format change! We get the charts from 40 to 15 but only those going up.

I don’t like it. It makes the chart feel messy and incomplete, and it’s weird when the chart stops at [15]. However, it has the advantage of being a lot quicker. It takes about 50 seconds to rattle through the charts compared to [sets stopwatch]… about 2 minutes total for the charts from [40] to [31] and [30] to [10] last week*.

*When I went back to check the timing I noticed two things about the 31/01/1991 show. Thing one, the person making the VT Countdown clock got confused and put the year as 1990. Thing 2, coming out of the charts Anthea Turner says of Kylie Minogue “she’s here”. It’s as if the programme was going to cut to a pre-recorded performance, until someone realised she was wearing a top with a CND symbol on it and edited in the music video instead.

[15] OLETA ADAMS: GET HERE. Oleta Adams is on videotape. It’s often possible to date a pre-recorded performance by looking at the lighting setup but Get Here is a slow ballad which means all the flashing lights have been turned off. Moving to other sources, Oleta Adams was on Wogan, Friday 11/01/1991, and The Late Show on Tuesday 22/01/1991. I reckon it is most likely Oleta Adams recorded her performance in the studio session for the 24/01/1991 edition, which would have been Wednesday 23/01/1991. This show which was suspiciously light on studio performances so there would have been time to set up Oleta Adams’ big piano.

The problem with slow songs is, the cameramen tend to use them to practice slowly zooming in and out while holding focus. Which is what happens here. It’s a bit boring. That said, the performance starts with a striking shot of Oleta Adams’ face upside down and cropped by two black bars. As the camera slowly zooms out, we see it is her reflection in the top of her piano.

[2] THE SIMPSONS: DO THE BARTMAN. Promo VT.

[24] KENNY THOMAS: OUTSTANDING. Uh-oh. There’s only three people onstage and one of them is a bongo player. Is this Jazz Funk Lite? Edge closer to the exit, just in case.

The song gets off to a bad start when it matches “finer every day” with “love you in a special way.” One of the more serious crimes against rhymes. And what is involved in being loved in a “special way”? It sounds like someone’s about to take a flying leap from the top of the wardrobe. No good will come from it.

TOP 5 JANUARY ALBUMS

[5] PHIL COLLINS: Serious Hits... Live! Clip from the Seriously Live video.

[4] WHITNEY HOUSTON: I’m Your Baby Tonight. Promo VT for I’m Your Baby Tonight.

[3] ENIGMA: MCMXC A.D. Promo VT for Sadness Part 1.

[2] ELTON JOHN: The Very Best Of Elton John. Promo VT for Healing Hands.

[1] MADONNA: The Immaculate Collection. Promo VT for Vogue.

[17] NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: GAMES. Promo VT.

[3] 2 IN A ROOM: WIGGLE IT. Promo VT.

TOP 10

[1] THE KLF: 3 a.m. Eternal. A repeat from 19/01/1991.

[22] THE SOURCE featuring CANDI STATON: YOU GOT THE LOVE. Promo VT. Gary Davies next week.

 

Countdown to Year Zero revamp: 35

Ratings: After 03/01/1991 Top of the Pops didn’t appear in the BBC1 Top 30 printed in The Stage so all I can do is say the programme rated less than whichever show came bottom of the chart for the week. Which was:

19/01/1991: According to the charts for the week ending 20/01/1991, Top of the Pops rated less than the 9.43 million who watched May to December.
24/01/1991: Less than the 8.71 million who watched News/Sport/Weather Saturday 9pm.
31/01/1991: Less than the 8.79 million who watched Question of Sport.
07/02/1991: Less than the 8.98 million who watched The Paul Daniels Magic Show.

Right, we’re all up to date with the ratings for the year so far. Let’s see what happens as Year Zero approaches.

 Performance of the week: If I was going to do this properly it would be Oleta Adams, Get Here. But frankly this is another thin week for studio performances so it’s really the video for The Source featuring Candi Staton, You Got The Love.